This invention relates to a method of processing radioactive waste, and more particularly to a method of processing radioactive waste, which has high money-saving and volume-reducing effect, and which permits radioactive waste to be formed into a solidified body having so high a durability with respect to the weather that allows the radioactivity in the solidified body to be sufficiently attenuated.
The waste occurring in a nuclear power plant includes mainly spent ion exchange resin, spent filtration assistant, regeneration waste liquid containing as its main component sodium sulfate (Na.sub.2 SO.sub.4) spent for regenerating the spent ion exchange resin, and liquid waste containing boric acid as its main component. Among the above radioactive waste, the spent ion exchange resin (which will be hereinafter referred to as a waste resin) is stored, in a conventional nuclear power plant, in a tank provided therein. On the other hand, the regeneration waste liquids are solidified as they are, after they are dried and pulverized or after they are pelletized, with cement, asphalt or a plastic so as to be stored. In order to reduce the amount such waste, it is necessary that the volume of the waste to be stored and an amount of secondary waste generated during a waste-processing operation be minimized. It has been demanded that a final waste-processing method be developed in the future, which method permits forming radioactive waste into a solidified body, which does not vary in its form with the lapse of time and which is not influenced by environmental conditions, such as the weather for as long as several ten or several hundred years whether the solidified body is stored on land or whether it is thrown away into the sea.